


In the Moment

by Korkyra



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Best Friends, Brothers, Eventual Relationships, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Light-Hearted, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Korkyra/pseuds/Korkyra
Summary: They're attending this event thing, each with their own concerns. Bart and slow don't mix, Tim hates not being in the know.Kon can't walk in leather shoes to save his life.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Tim Drake, Hal Jordan & Bruce Wayne, Kon-El | Conner Kent & Jason Todd, Kon-El | Conner Kent & Lex Luthor, Kon-El | Conner Kent/Jason Todd, Lex Luthor & Clark Kent & Lois Lane, Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Oliver Queen
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	In the Moment

The alarm clock goes off.

Kon reaches for it, shutting it off. He's been up since 5 a.m. due a nervous disposition brought by an upcoming event on his schedule.

Fighting that intergalactic threat last week seemed like a piece of cake compared to getting dressed, have his hair behaving, and being expected to mingle between socialites of both Gotham and Metropolis, along some other circles, as if these two weren't enough of a hassle to deal with on their own. Let alone combined.

Usually, he didn't have to.

Lex was kind enough to leave him out of them, mostly due the fact that they occurred way too late on a school night – even if this particular minor was, in fact, home schooled.

This one, he wouldn't be so lucky as to avoid it entirely.

His dad had put effort in this project, rather than delegating it to the first person down the hierarchy capable of running it. If he had to pinpoint the blame of having to attend things he rather wouldn't on someone, it would be on certain individuals from the JLA and STARLabs.

Time travelling and dimensional skips weren't unusual occurrences, not for them at least, up to five times a week had become a standard until some six months prior when a certain message came through and it was Oct, 26th when Lex Luthor casually walked in his private lab space meaning shit was up and it required him along other people of intelligence occasionally residing in the watch tower orbiting around Earth to figure something out.

Following tradition, whenever something of importance happened, the mentors and parents tended to clamp up and get busy solving it, leaving the minor issues to apprentices, side kicks, and kids to deal with them in their stead.

To everyone else not involved with the hero business, a major collaboration on someone's whim brought a new state of the art satellite soon to orbit a little past the Moon for science purposes. Soon being a loose term in space travel affairs.

To those involved, it's a scanner combining a lot of tech, some magic, and a lot of algorithms to process that all within a reasonable time frame. What for, exactly, is an information not disclosed to them.

Cyborg probably had the time of his life working on it. His own power supply was still a mystery, acting up on occasions, not that _that_ was ever a reason for concern. However, the few times he had a glimpse of the man, he didn't look sure of his own existence.

Kon wanted to say something, each time, but figured Cyborg could read him well enough to just know. That's how he chose to interpret the slight waves of his hand when he tried to approach him, offering a small smile which vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Tim tired his very best to unravel that mystery, until Batman put a stop to it.

So much for that.

In the end, all they had been told was – it's party time.

Hence the long groan of the frustrated teen in dire need of a weekend off from any hero activities. He should be sleeping in peace, not waiting for dawn in his bed because his nerves decided to interpret a rich people party a threat, even if it tended to be just that, sometimes.

With growth spurs hitting him and his friends, the only time he didn't feel like a baby giraffe in bright costumes was when kicking ass and throwing clever and not so clever remarks back where they came from while trying not to be slapped through several buildings or ending the day with an off colour complexion because of random liquids of unknown origins.

Now, he had to put on a suit. Starched up white collar shirt. Wear dress shoes. The expensive, slippery on every surface known to man leather ones.

_He really didn't like those._

What's worse, the whole thing starts at 11, before noon, it was an entire day thing, _he will die-_

Die, he would not, of course, but focusing ones entire energy on not landing face first on the floor comes pretty close to that.

Kon could do many things, walk in leather shoes was not one of them.

How his dad did was a secret skill he had yet to achieve and unlock. Granted, had he put them on when he was suggested to, he'd have an idea, probably, but why bother learning to walk when he did that already.

The shoemaker did their very best to help out, with criss crosses on the soles yet refusing to glue some silicon on them, which would have been more useful, in Kon's opinion. Something about ruining perfectly good shoes. Kon didn't understand any of it. Shoemaker logic on soles was beyond him, anyway.

Lex ignored all and any phone calls thought the morning, focusing on Kon, trying to ease this for him as he could. Attention wasn't an issue with neither of them, though this was a bit different. Appearance was important, as was mannerism, along with the vocabulary. Lex was sure, however, the moment he steps out of the car, Kon would breeze through the entire thing, like he always did.

“You're never this nervous before an event.” The man oh so cleverly observes as Kon sits down, one leg bouncing up and down, shifting in his seat.

“It's the shoes.” Kon explains. So far, he managed to cross the living room in them. In one go. At a snails pace.

“Ah,” his father smiles, that's the problem, “just try not to run in them and you'll be fine.”

Not-not run? He didn't even try to run, all he did was try walking in these. What? He'd have to walk this slow the entire time? Why would people want to-okay, now he sounds like Bart. Not that he will ever take his complaints about people being slow lightly ever again.

Yes, he needed some time off from the hero business but that didn't mean he would drag himself the entire day. Sneakers were a blessing.

“Can't I put on some sneakers instead?” He asks.

“You'll live for a few hours. No one says you have to walk around all the time.” Lex says as he glances at his wrist watch, picking up his things from the table as he motions it's go time.

“There is no way I'm doing that in these.” Kon huffs as he gets up, following him.

“What if I slip?”

“You won't slip.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I'm sure because you won't be paying so much attention on the possibility of slipping to cause yourself to slip when we get there.”

“Why? What else is there to think about?”

Okay, so maybe the shoes were a bigger issue than Lex wanted them to be. Only emphasised by Kon's need to not exactly walk as to slightly float above ground.

“You're holding yourself up by levitating at the slightest possible height difference, how is that easier than just walking?”

Sure, Kon's gotten a hand on his own set of powers but to this degree? Impressive, to say the least.

“Because I don't have to think about slipping if I just never touch the floor in the first place.”

_And here we have the Kent logic._

“Alright.” Lex can't, for the life of him, hide his amusement right now. “Last an hour in them and I'll have your sneakers ready.”

That seemed to instantly cure whatever else concerns Kon might have had at that moment.

Lasting an hour was easier said than done. The moment the car doors opened, the wave of reporters came crashing in, which was okay since they didn't induce the need to crawl back into the vehicle and remain there for the rest of the day like the last time he accidentally attended some thing when all he wanted was to grab some burgers with Tim and Bart.

Both stared at him weirdly when he dropped into the seat as if he'd just fought a bunch of aliens for ten days straight.

“ _Why?”_

“ _You handled that pretty well, Kon.”_

Yeah, on the _outside_ , he had dazzled the crowd. On the inside? _He wanted a nap._

The reassurance of the outdoor carpet was too short, for someone thought it a good idea to cut it just before the stairs. Climbing them seemed to have been an effort equal to climbing the Everest as a regular human. By the time he reached the front doors, Kon was already exhausted.

That was ten meters and five minutes in total.

_He was definitely going to die today._

Inside, he didn't have time to blink, Bart was already glued to him.

“New shoes, huh?” The speedster asked, purposefully slow, which was killing him, Kon could sympathise. He felt that, he really did.

“I have to live just for an hour.”

“ _Same._ ”

The two slowly paced around until they saw a crows around someone.

“Nice of you to join in!” Tim smiles as Dick skilfully takes his place in the crowd to let him join his friends.

Unlike the two, Tim had all the experience needed for events like these. Save the exact idea as to why this all was even about, which he hated and it showed in that stiff mirthless grin of his.

Regardless, it was Tim who took on the sacred duty of getting them though the hour.

Polite small talk, short questionnaires, elaborate congratulations on their father's work, etc. Each time someone mentioned Bruce, Kon and Bart tried not to laugh at the annoyance surging through the teen in quantum spans, easy to miss, if you didn't know Tim.

“Ten more minutes of this and we can flutter away to the back.” Bart exclaims happily. He had his twentieth plate in his hands, munching on some tiny bits of various cakes without anyone actually noticing.

“Thank you.” Kon says, experiencing a whole new level of gratefulness, as he takes one piece of cake from Bart's plate.

“You should eat something, you've been standing stiff all this time.” Bart says, tilting his head. “Must be exhausting.”

“Not really hungry, Bart, but thanks for the concern.” Kon says as he eyes the piece of some chocolate bit.

He was somewhere in between a closed stomach for the day and raiding the buffet, like Bart was doing periodically, but so far, the first one won.

Cyborg looked much better than the last time he saw him, but Lex and Clark five minutes ago? Uh, not so much.

Hal Jordan was speaking to Bruce about something, with Tim's foster father looking quite done himself but somehow glad nonetheless. Tim was already reading everyone's lips for the past fifty minutes, while Kon hoped his two biological parents wouldn't start another cold war over whatever it was this time.

Lois, not ten paces away, didn't look concerned, casually toying with her glass, offering a smile when she caught his attention, so...maybe it was just weariness? Hell wouldn't know with those two, really.

Finally, a full hour passed, marked by a fancy metal utensil to fine thin glass, quite a pleasant sound to Kon, if he thought about it, and everyone's attention went from all around the room to the people gathered on a small podium, which was a cue for the obligatory speeches to begin.

Meaning, Bart could speed away free from his mentor's watchful gaze to get in the back, Dick could loosen his tie, which he did as he waved at him and Kon on his way to the balcony, Tim went Red Robin on everyone and slipped away into the scarce shadows of the conference hall and Kon could drop his ass on the chair in the back and change his current foot wear for something indefinitely more comfortable.

For a human being, Lex did have a secret superpower and that was walking in leather shoes all day without missing a beat.

Alas, true to the conversation held between them earlier that morning, Kon really didn't spare a thought to the incident of slipping until he relaxed a bit too much for someone not used to pace fine floors in unfamiliar shoes with criss crossed soles.

_He slipped._

Just as he turned a corner, thankfully, so if he had to disgrace himself, at least it would be away from many eyes.

Though, the collision never occurred, not because of his own powers kicking in, he still wasn't at _that_ level with them but because of a pair of quite strong hands.

“Whoa there.” He heard just as he looked up to see his saviour, feeling quite helpless for someone who had Superman genes to his name. “You alright?”

He knows Jason, how could he not, he and Dick were Tim's brothers and idols, even if Tim doesn't agree with the wording, it was true no matter how you called it.

A short _yep_ with a popping _p_ at the end was all that Kon managed in all his vocabulary glory as he started realising he had his entire bodyweight in Jason's hands, not that the older teen complained about it, and it would be a good idea he moved to regain balance.

Jason gave him a once over out of pure I'm-an-older-brother-dis-what-I-do intent until his gaze stopped at Kon's feet.

“Running in leather shoes?” He asks with an amused quirk of the corner of his lips. “ _Bold._ ”

There was something in the way this seemed to amuse the older teen that Kon didn't really like as he felt the tips of his ears burning under that green tinted gaze.

“Walking, actually.” Kon corrects him, with dignified nonchalance Jason ever only witnessed by the boy's father when Superman stated something really dumb about a year back.

“Here,” Jason offers a box with Kon's sneakers in it, “try these.”

“Finally!” Kon beams as he grabs the life saving footwear, floating above ground to untie the shoes which landed him in his friends older brother's arms.

“...wait, why do you have my sneakers?” He asks as he puts the other shoes into the box.

“Golden boy got them from an assistant of yours, is what I've been told.”Jason offers. “Then, he dumped them on me.”

“Rude!” They hear someone say, spotting Dick making his way toward them with a pout. “Tim gave me those, asking to save Kon from the ones he had on.”

“Uh-uh.” Jason pursed his lips slight, unimpressed. “Where is Timbers, anyway?”

“Toilet.” Dick says. “Also, I only appointed you the task because you'd ever only step foot inside to do Kon a favour.”

“So you admit you dumped them on me. ” Jason states. “My task is now complete so be so kind and take these back.”

He hands the box over to Dick before turning him by the shoulders and complimenting him through the doors.

“Didn't want to attend this either way.” Jason adds as he watches Dick hurry down the stairs, with the box in hands. “You haven't seen Roy, have you? Queen dragged him here against his will and I'm here to bail him out.”

“Uhm, no, sorry.” Kon shrugs. “Was busy paying attention to my feet for the past hour.”

“That's fine.” Comes the reassurance. “We both know you needed to.”

Kon graces him with one of the most spontaneously stuck out tongues in the history of childish retorts. This time, Jason laughs.

“If anyone asks, you were demonstrating a low flight technique.” He says just as he spots his friend trying to escape a journalist.

“That's my cue. Take care.” He says as he hurries to save Roy this time.

Kon spares him an exasperated look before locating Tim near one of the bathrooms.

“In the nick of time.” Jason mutters as he and Roy slip away from the reporters chasing the latter.

“How come no one chases you around?” Roy huffs, mending his hairdo. “It isn't fair.”

“One of my many talents.” The younger of the two spares a quick glance behind the corner, waiting for the coast to clear.

“Yeah, yeah-” Roy stops, looking at his friend. “...when did you have the time to tease Kon?”

“...who says I've teased him?”

“You have that stupid smirk you only have when you give Luthor junior a reason to send you to heck.”

“Funny, you're the second person to imply such a thing.”

From the looks of it, hey could probably sneak out the back window. He tugs on Roy's jacket when the last person clears the hallway.

“Who's the first?”

“Dick.”

“What did he say?”

“That I'd only ever step foot in this building to do Kon a favour after he dumped Tim's quest on me.”

Roy snorts.

“That's two of us and you proved both of us right.”

“Shut up.”

“You're hopeless.”

“How am I hopeless?” Jason asks as he takes off his own suit jacket, cursed be the moment he let Alfred talk him into it. How did people move in this?

“Don't take it the wrong way. It's cute of you to spend time with the kids.” Roy takes the jacket, folding in neatly around his arm. “Who actually have the capacity to behave like ones around here.” He adds with a weary expression.

“Speaking from experience?” Jason asks as he pulls himself up on the window sill.

“You bet. Also, Kon's fun to tease. And Bart. Where is Bart?”

“Probably went to find real food in decent quantities.”

That gets Roy thinking. “...yeah, I could use a proper lunch.”

“You think I carry lunch with me?” Jason quirks an eyebrow at him as he tosses both of their jackets out, giving Roy a hand.

“Last Titan's mission? You had entire lunch sets with you for them! We weren't even dealing with shit on the same side of the state.”

“Your point?”

_Why that little-_

“Now I see why Dick dotes on you so much.” The archer in disguise teases as he ruffles Jason's hair.

Jason merely swats his hand, jumping down, leaving Roy behind, as he picks up his jacket and hangs it around his shoulders.

“Bye.”

Ray almost lands on his face.

“Wait for me!”

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask what universe this is, I make it up as I go....


End file.
